One Company Wants to Replace Narcotic Painkillers with VR Headsets

Opioids, or narcotic painkillers, serve as our primary method for alleviating physical distress. They also happen to be a leading cause of death due to their addictive nature. AppliedVR hopes to introduce a safer alternative: virtual reality gaming.

AppliedVR utilizes the existing Samsung Gear VR for the hardware, but provides specialized software that offers up a distracting experience that fosters greater pain ignorance.

In essence, patients play a game they cannot lose that involves lobbing balls at bears simply by looking at them (Bear Blast) or throwing food out to hungry animals… more